20VC: Mercor: From $1M to $500M in 17 Months: The Fastest Growing Company in the World | How to Think About Margins and Revenue Sustainability in AI | Why Evaluation Benchmarks in AI are BS Today with Brendan Foody

Brendan Foody is the Co-Founder and CEO @ Mercor, the fastest growing company in history. The company solves talent allocation in the AI economy and they have scaled from $1M to $500M in revenue in just 17 months. With a rumoured new funding round pricing the company at a whopping $10BN, the company has the likes of Benchmark, Felicis, Emergence, and of course, 20VC, all on their cap table. 

AGENDA: 

04:34 Why My Mother Thought I Was Selling Drugs as a Kid

07:48 In The Time My Peers Graduated, I Created a $10BN Business; Is College Worth it?

10:27 Scale, Surge, Mercor, Turing: How Do Data Providers Differentiate

20:57 Scaling from $1M to $500M: We Quadrupled Since Scale was Acquired

33:43 Is There Too Much Cash in Private Markets?

34:55 Why Evaluation Benchmarks in AI are Total BS

35:44 Revenue Sustainability in AI Companies

36:48 Should Investors Give a S*** About Margins When Analysing AI Companies

40:46 The Future of AI Model Providers: Who Wins

45:58 You Cannot Create a $10BN Company without 9-9-6 Work Culture

48:56 We Literally Have Too Much Money, We Cannot Spend It… 

52:36 Quick Fire Round: OpenAI vs Anthropic, Lessons from Peter Fenton and Jack Dorsey